Lumberton Informer

The first meeting of the mayor and board for 2015 will convene tonight. Will there be a willingness to make needed changes? Will the mayor continue in his quest to rid the city of police protection, despite the numerous break ins? Will we ever get a city clerk that knows how to tell the truth and use the BBI software? Will the citizens show up and demand answers from their representatives? Will we ever find out what happened to the money or will they continue to blame the fiscal shortfall on the closing of Cooper's Industries or will the accept responsibility for not raising the millege rate? These and more questions will be answered at tonight's board meeting or they will continue to be unsolved mysteries. The pressing matter at this point is the fact that the citizens of Lumberton are just getting their water bills; four days before they can start charging late fees. The city clerk claims she mailed them out on December 31, 2014 but the post office didnt receive them unt...

As we slept, there were allegedy six break ins last night. What a way to start 2015. If this mayor and board does not realize the need for police officers and continue to make cuts in the public safety department, this city is going to become a bastion of lawlessness. At every meeting, they say the public works department is doing good; financially. But when I read the comments on the Lumberton Informer Facebook page, it seems that most citizens are not pleased with the public works department or the city clerk. Over and over again, there are complaints about misread water meters and over inflated water bills. I said in an earlier post that the outrageous bills and antiquated method of checking meters benefits the water department; allowing them to have five employees on payroll and that includes a part time employee. Now, how can we have a budget crisis but one department is fully staffed but not making any sewer repairs, not collecting garbage, not reading meters, and they have a...

We survived to see another year. Glory to God! There were a few end of the year brushfires that attempted to take me off course but I assure you all that I will continue to blog and submit videos from the meetings. I may have to halt the formation of the watchdog group because I need to focus on preparing my defense for the pending threats of legal retaliation from Merlene Wall, city clerk. I know I am operatimg within my rights regarding freedom of speech but when a person threatens to seek a restraining order in an effort to have you banned from city hall, I think it deserves some attention. I'm not sure what the letter I received was supposed to accomplish but one thing it managed to do was fuel my desire to continue blogging. If the letter was formatted more professionally and contained at least one phrase like egregious malfeasance, I probably would have taken it more seriously. As one friend said, "politicians and public officials must realize that they are in yhe spot...

Disclaimer: This blog post will contain some content that may be deemed offensive. I will be using various, unedited quotes. Please log off now if you feel you can not handle the content. If you are still reading this post, you have acknowledged the fact that you are aware of the potential volatile nature of this post. The other week, when I penned the "We Are Lumberton" post, I decided that I had dedicated enough time and effort to what's wrong with Lumberton. I posted blogs and provided video to support my statements. At that point, I felt I had given the citizens of Lumberton enough information to help them make an informed decision on how they wanted to move this city in a new direction. I was planning on transitioning this blog into a more positive tool. I'm still planning on promoting positive images of Lumberton but I have to pause for a moment to address the letter I received yesterday from an attorney representing Merlene Wall, city clerk. Now those that...

I wasn't planning on blogging any more but after receiving a letter from William L. Ducker, the attorney representing Merlene (or as he spells it Merlaine), my blogging fire has been ignited once again. It seems there's a plan to either sue me or seek to have me banned from City Hall. First of all, I am operating within my first amendment right. Have tbey heard of freedom of speech. Secondly, if I'm paying someone to be my legal representative, I would certainly hope they could spell my name correctly. I've been threatened with being sued before. When the last board attempted this legal recourse, I had to seek representation. At the first of the year, I will give them a call so I can be ready for the next step. I find it strange that Merlene has so much time to spend on my blog but she can't give an accurate acvount of what's in the budget or how to properly use BBI. Now this is not something I made up, she admits these things, on video. I guess she forgot ...

Yesterday, the special called meeting was canceled due to a lack of a quorum. I wanted to know what Mayor Winston intended with the order to designate Lumberton as a hub. I also wanted to speak with Winston to get more insight about his recent actions and to offer him the opportunity to give a statement that would help exculpate the image engrained in the minds of tbe citizens that viewed his plea at the Lamar County Board of Supervisors meeting. Unfortunately, we will have to wait and see if he has an explanation for his actions. At this point, we have no idea where things stand. We're in the season of giving and Winston is still focused on taking. I can't emphasize this enough. We need our police department. A few weeks ago, I sarcastically reported that a yoing man helped a woman load groceries into her car. A reader responded and said that's what she liked about Lumberton. She also expressed the joy she felt when a woman prayed for her mother in the parking lot of t...

Just last week, we all witnessed Mayor Winston cooning for County support. There are some that feel the Lamar County Board of Supervisors should step in and take over but I'm not in that group. What was made clear during the exchange between Winston and the Supervisors was the fact that they offered some advice on how to correct this matter. It was also clear that Winston had no intention of raising taxes, per the supervisor's recommendation. The question remains, why ask for advice if you're not going to follow it? Are you that much of a block head? According to Winston, "I hoped y'all, especially with the season we're in, would dig into your hearts and find a reason to help others and not find a reason to not help others." In other words, a person that allegedly threw away all the Christmas decorations at his former church because he didn't want them celebrating Christmas, wants the Lamar County Board of Supervisors to play Santa Claus for the Ci...